Why We Remember and Honor King
Dr Martin Luther King Jr deserves better than being offered as an icon of
another Establishment holiday. His earned moral authority allowed him to begin
to forge some real unity in action between the insurgent civil rights, antiwar
and labor movements of the turbulent Sixties. His assassination was a blow to
all three of those struggles, a setback aggravating a leadership crisis still
sorely felt by working people today.

The civil
rights movement of the brief, but action-packed, days of King’s leadership
ultimately won some significant victories, demolishing institutionalized
segregation. Nevertheless, racism remains a central problem for the American
working class. By many measures, the social, economic, and political status of
Black America is even worse today than when King first became prominent in the
1950s. Our class cannot make real progress without confronting this challenge
and finding ways to overcome it.

Dr King’s
antiwar message continues to reverberate. African-Americans are overwhelmingly
opposed to the war in Iraq. When the "civic leaders" of San Antonio, Texas
arranged for Air Force fighter jets to do a fly-over at this year’s official
King Day celebration–to "provide a patriotic flair to the march during a time of
war"–there was a justified great outcry from those who know that King was
dedicated to nonviolence and would certainly be opposed to the current war.

New York City
Mayor Bloomberg recently called transit strikers–a majority of whom are people
of color-- "thugs" because of their defiance of an unjust law and injunction. He
was quickly answered by those who know that Dr King was in Memphis at the time
of his murder in order to support city workers--striking in defiance of an
unjust law and injunction.

As fresh
revelations of illegal government spying appear almost daily we recall how J
Edgar Hoover–then the head of America’s secret police, the FBI–not only
conducted illegal surveillance of Dr King; he also planted false rumors about
him in the press.

All working
people should take this occasion to remember and honor Dr King. At the same time
we should demonstrate nothing but contempt for those hypocrites in politics and
the media who try to bask in his glory while undermining everything he stood
for.

More On Sago
The explosion that killed twelve at the Sago mine could have been contained in
the abandoned part of the mine where it occurred had traditional concrete
barriers been in place. Instead, the operator had used a foam barrier that
failed, allowing the deadly contamination to spread. The cheaper foam
theoretically met the bare minimum standards of MSHA but is considered
inadequate by the more stringent guidelines of NIOSH.

Transit Give Back Just An Appetizer
Now that paycheck deductions for health care have been extracted from transit
"thugs," New York labor’s very good "friend," Mayor Bloomberg, is ready to feast
on similar give-backs from municipal unions representing 300,000 workers.

So far, these
union leaders have only insisted on equality of sacrifice. Steve Greenhouse
writes in the New York Times,

"After she met
for contract talks with city officials, Lillian Roberts, the executive director
of the largest municipal union [AFSCME DC 37], declared yesterday that if the
Bloomberg administration wants concessions on health premiums, it should
negotiate them with all the municipal unions together, not just with hers."

That suits the
others. As Greenhouse notes,

"Many union
leaders assert that District Council 37 set a poor pattern for the city's unions
when it accepted numerous concessions in its last contract."

These leaders
leaned heavily on the transit workers to call off their strike and cave in on
health care. This chicken approach is now coming home to roost. Unfortunately,
it’s their members that will pay the price.

A New War On Drugs
The great new Medicare prescription drug "benefit," cooked up by the Bush
administration with indispensable help from the AARP, arrived with the new year.
The Washington Post reports, "Two weeks into the new Medicare
prescription drug program, many of the nation's sickest and poorest elderly and
disabled people are being turned away or overcharged at pharmacies, prompting
more than a dozen states to declare health emergencies and pay for their
life-saving medicines.....As many as 6.4 million low-income seniors, who until
Dec. 31 received their medications free, suddenly find themselves navigating an
insurance maze of large deductibles, co-payments and outright denial of
coverage."

I’m thankful
that I’ve got another two years before I must accept this "benefit."

Resistance Is Futile
The top "opposition" Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee visited Bangalore,
India–a center of professional, technical, and service jobs outsourced by
American employers–to get the skinny on the problem of off shoring. His
conclusion, according to the Detroit News: "outsourcing white-collar jobs
to low-wage countries such as India has become a global fact of life -- and ...
America must learn to live with it."

Conflict Diamond
Representatives of baseball club owners and the Major League Players Association
are in Cuba to discuss "logistics" for the first ever World Baseball
Classic–similar in concept to soccer’s World Cup competition. But this
conception may never make it out of the womb because of the Bush
administration’s hard ball sanctions against Cuba.

The state
department has already once rejected granting travel permission for Cuban
players. Fidel Castro since announced that Cuba was not interested in being paid
to play and would donate any money due them to Katrina relief. MLB has submitted
another application for a travel permit but has so far received no answer. The
International Baseball Federation says it will withdraw its sanction of the
tournament if Cuba isn't allowed to play.

Taken For A Ride By the CTA
On January 1, the Chicago Transit Authority, citing escalating operating costs,
hiked base cash fare for bus and el service to 2.00. They also eliminated free
transfers for cash paying riders. Holders of "Chicago Cards" can continue to pay
the old 1.75 fare and get two free transfers. Protests of these changes erupted
on two fronts.

First, there
was outrage that the CTA had rejected an offer by Citgo–owned by the Venezuelan
government–to sell the authority 7.5 million gallons of diesel fuel at a
discount worth 15 million. This is part of a plan by the Chavez regime to pump
back some of the profit Citgo makes in the USA to assist poor Americans with
heating oil and support for mass transit.

Another twist
was a law suit charging that Chicago Cards were becoming very difficult to
obtain in Black neighborhoods and even in the Loop. It’s not uncommon for the
working poor to have to make two transfers on the way to work. With the card
they’d spend 3.50 a day; without costs them 12.00.

You Never Call, You Never Write
The powers that be don’t like the government in Venezuela because it is
advancing the cause of working people both at home and abroad. They don’t miss a
chance to try to smear the Bolivarian Revolution in order to offset growing
sympathy.

Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton, along with some prominent European and American Jewish
leaders, have denounced Hugo Chavez for a new crime–"anti-Semitism." But the
venerable New York Jewish paper, Forward, carries a different story from
Venezuela’s Jewish community.

"Officials of
the leading organization of Venezuelan Jewry were preparing a letter this week
to the [Wiesenthal] center, complaining that it had misinterpreted Chavez's
words and had failed to consult with them before attacking the Venezuelan
president.

"‘You have
interfered in the political status, in the security, and in the well-being of
our community. You have acted on your own, without consulting us, on issues that
you don't know or understand.’

"Both the AJ
Committee and the American Jewish Congress seconded the Venezuelan community's
view that Chavez's comments were not aimed at Jews. All three groups said he was
aiming his barbs at the white oligarchy that has dominated the region since the
colonial era, pointing to his reference to Bolivar as the clearest evidence of
his intent."

I Hate It When We’re Right
In the November 27 Week In Review I wrote, "Just as they recently did
with health care, look for them [General Motors] to demand from the UAW some
immediate relief from contractual restrictions on job cuts."

This week the
Detroit Free Press wrote,

"With hundreds
of angry autoworkers protesting outside Cobo over industry cutbacks, General
Motors Corp.'s chief made it clear Sunday he wants the UAW to accept even more
cost cuts before the contract expires next year.

"High priority
on his list: the UAW jobs bank, which pays laid-off workers."